Computer Chips

News about Computer Chips, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

Chronology of Coverage

Jul. 9, 2015

IBM says it has made working versions of ultradense computer chips, which have about four times capacity of most powerful chips today. MORE

Jun. 24, 2015

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, China's largest chipmaker, announces partnership with Qualcomm to form new company that will produce new generations of advanced semiconductors; announcement comes despite $975 million fine levied against Qualcomm by China four months earlier; new venture is aimed at helping SMIC close wide technology gap with rivals. MORE

Jun. 17, 2015

Chip makers and other Silicon Valley leaders scramble to renew lobbying push for the Trans Atlantic Partnership as previous optimism vanishes; executives have said that legislation is essential to protect intellectual property across the Pacific and to keep American companies from being squeezed out of essential markets. MORE

May. 21, 2015

Chinese government expresses concern over Justice Dept indictments of six Chinese scientists in United States, on rarely used charges of economic espionage in connection with cellphone chip technology that was taken from two small American companies; spokesman for Foreign Ministry says Chinese government is seeking more information about the arrests in effort to protect rights of Chinese professionals involved in China-US exchanges. MORE

May. 13, 2015

Thomas L Friedman Op-Ed column profiles Gordon Moore, researcher famous for establishing Moore's Law in 1965 and later co-founder of Intel; notes law, which states number of transistors that can fit on a single silicon chip will double every two years, has proved essentially true; relates Moore's recollections about his life, his theory, and his thoughts on current state of tech research. MORE

Oct. 27, 2014

China is investing billions in domestic chip makers as well as using legal action against multinationals and, experts say, espionage; country imported $232 billion of semiconductor products in 2013; government task force is estimated to have $170 billion in government support to spend over five to 10 years. MORE

Aug. 8, 2014

IBM details TrueNorth computer chip it has developed in article published in journal Science; chip is inspired by human brain architecture and may one day exceed capabilities of today's supercomputers by mimicking the way brains recognize patterns. MORE

Jul. 9, 2014

IBM will spend $3 billion over the next five years on computer chip technology, with an eye toward moving beyond the silicon era. MORE

Apr. 2, 2014

Judge Nora Barry Fischer of Federal District Court in Pittsburgh orders Marvell Technology Group to pay nearly $1.54 billion to Carnegie Mellon University for selling billions of semiconductors that infringed school’s two hard disk drive patents. MORE

Feb. 16, 2014

Cultural anthropologist Genevieve Bell is leading globe-trotting team of 100 social scientists and designers at Intel Corporation whose mission is to learn what people crave in their electronics; team's findings help Intel's product development process, and are often shared with firms that embed Intel processors in their goods. MORE

Feb. 5, 2014

British semiconductor designer ARM Holdings reports net loss for its fourth quarter as royalties from its chip designs continue to falter. MORE

Sep. 26, 2013

Stanford researchers, reporting in journal Nature, say they have successfully built working computer, albeit an extremely simple one, entirely from transistors fashioned from carbon nanotubes; nanotubes, which are cylinder-shaped molecules, are viewed as having potential to extend limits of silicon. MORE

Sep. 16, 2013

Taiwan is world's biggest chip maker, with $63 billion in 2012 sales, but many semiconductor companies have low profit margins or are losing money; at same time, Silicon Valley giants that depend on innovations in chip industry are flush with profits. MORE

Jun. 4, 2013

Advertising column; Intel Corp, maker of computer processors, has used
'Sponsors of tomorrow' as its marketing theme since May 2009, and is replacing the phrase with 'Look inside.' MORE

May. 3, 2013

Brian M Krzanich, new chief executive of Intel, faces stiff challenges in turning around company that has lagged in producing chips for hot products like smartphones and tablet devices; Krzanich is planning a wide expansion of semiconductors for use in those very products. MORE

Apr. 16, 2013

Indian government is committed to buying half of its computing needs from domestic sources, though India manufactures few of those products; country imported $8.2 billion in semiconductors in 2012, with demand growing 20 percent annually. MORE

Apr. 15, 2013

Intel is struggling to adapt its business model as proliferation of mobile devices and cloud computing hurts demand for semiconductors that made it titan of PC industry; company is continuing to search for replacement to longtime CEO Paul Otellini that will spearhead shift. MORE

Apr. 9, 2013

Researchers at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center are developing new system for making electronics that uses printing technology to place tiny electronic circuits in precise patterns, upending traditional microchip model; scientists envision building custom computers or making smart objects with computing woven into their structure. MORE

Mar. 19, 2013

Feb. 20, 2013

Carbon nanotubes may prove to be material of future when currently used silicon-based chips reach their fundamental physical limits in next decade; Stanford researchers successfully demonstrate simple microelectronic circuit composed of transistors fabricated from threadlike fibers. MORE

Jan. 7, 2013

MediaTek of Taiwan not only provides manufacturers with chips for their smartphones but also offers instructions on how to build and run them, cutting their costs as they compete with Apple's iPhone; firm has 50 percent of China's smartphone chip market. MORE

Dec. 27, 2012

Carnegie Mellon University is awarded $1.17 billion by a federal jury in Pittsburgh in a unanimous verdict that found the Marvell Technology Group sold billions of semiconductors using technology developed at the university without a license; award is one of the largest in a patent infringement case. MORE

Oct. 13, 2012

Russian Foreign Ministry says that several Russians arrested in Texas and accused of illegally exporting microelectronics to Russian military and intelligence agencies have been subjected to 'psychological and moral pressure' to make admissions of guilt. MORE

Oct. 5, 2012

Russian officials have a muted response to potentially embarrassing revelation that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had uncovered a ring of Russian agents smuggling microchips out of the United States. MORE

May. 13, 2012

Pet-chip technology, which allows lost or stolen pets to be readily identified, has become a big business, with annual charges for benefits ranging from online distribution of customized lost-pet notices to discounted flights for missing pets found hundreds of miles away; according the the American Humane Assn, more than 10 million pets are euthanized every year because their owners cannot be found. MORE

Mar. 23, 2012

Grade-school students in Vitoria da Conquista, a northeastern city in Brazil, are using uniforms embedded with computer chips that alert parents if they are cutting classes. MORE

Feb. 28, 2012

Elpida Memory files for bankruptcy with $5.6 billion in debt; filing is biggest ever for a Japanese manufacturer, and could lead to higher memory chip prices for consumers. MORE

Jan. 21, 2012

Thailand produced much of the world’s hard disk drives before the floods of 2011; it is now clear it will be months before production returns to normal, as only 15 percent of the 227 factories in the flood zone have restarted production. MORE

Dec. 6, 2011

Computer researchers are hard at work finding a successor to the silicon chip, which is encountering limitations in terms of size and efficiency; many researchers say the field of nanotechnology holds the most promise for such innovation. MORE

Nov. 7, 2011

Flooding in Thailand causes shortage in crucial computer hard-drive parts, with no reliable forecast on when parts will become available again; consumers worldwide could see price increases of at least 10 percent for external hard drives; flooding reveals extent to which global computer and car industries rely on Thai components. MORE